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1857 



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T HE 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



OF THE 



STATE OF MICHIGAN. 



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[SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT.] 



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If UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.' 




LANSING, MICHIGAN: 

IIOSMER & FITCH, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS. 

18 5 7. 



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THE 






AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



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OF THE 



STATE OF MICHIGAN. 







LANSING, MICHIGAN: 
HOSMER & FITCH, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS. 

1857. 



37 






1 iS 



STATE BOARD OF EDUOATIOW: 

HON. HIRAM L. MILLER, Saginaw City, President of 

the Board. 

HON. JOHN E. KELLOGG, Allegan. 

KEY. GEORGE WILLARD, Battle Creek. 

HON. IRA MAYHEW, Albion, Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, and ex-officio Secretary of the Board. 



FACULTY OF THE INSTITUTION: 

JOSEPH R. WILLIAMS, President, and Director of fck© 

Farm. 

CALVIN TRACT, Professor of Mathematics. 

LEWIS R. FISK, Professor of Chemistry. 

*HENRY GOADBY, Professor of Animal and Vegefcatte 
Physiology and Entomology. 

*D. P. MAYHEW, Professor of Natural Science, 

ROBERT D. WEEKS, Professor of English Literature and 
Farm Economy, and Secretary. 

JOHN C. HOLMES, Professor of Horticulture, and Troaa- 

urer. 



ENOCH BANCKER, Assistant in Chemistry. 



JAMES M. SHEARER, Steward. 



* These gentlemen have not entered upon the perfoimanee of their dvlieu. 
Dr. Goadby will do 80 when the Board of Kducution notify him that MaBervicctf 
are required, and Mr. Mavhew as eoon as an existing engagement permiia. 



STUDENTS. 



NAMES. 


POST OFFICE. 


COUNTY. 


Sidney M. Abbott, 


Farmington, 


Oakland. 


Gad M. Adams, 


Chelsea, 


Washtenaw. 


Henry L. Barney, 


Dowagiac, 


Cass. 


Adams Bayley, 


Big Beaver, 


Oakland. 


Leonard V. Beebe, 


Stockbridge, 


Ingham. 


Isaac D. Benham, 


Windsor, 


Eaton. 


Henry D. Benham, 


Windsor, 


Eaton. 


Ransom M. Brooks, 


Dearborn ville, 


Wayne. 


Joseph Gilbert Bryan, 


Farmington, 


Oakland. 


Harvey Bush, 


Fowlerville, 


Livingston* 


Russel B. Callahan, 


Sanford, 


Ingham. 


Henry B. Carpenter, 


Windsor, 


Eaton. 


William W. Carpenter, 


Howell, 


Livingston. 


Mason D. Chatterton, 


Sanford, 


Ingham. 


Walter M. Chester, 


Detroit, 


Wayne. 


Henry C. Christiancy, 


Monroe, 


Monroe. 


Albert E. Cowles, 


Lansing, 


Ingham. 


Henry N. Curtis, 


Howell, 


Livingston. 


DeWitt C. Cutler, 


Lansing, 


Ingham. 


Stephen W. Duncombe, 


Keeler, 


Yan Buren. 


John A. Elder, 


Lansing, 


Ingham. 


George C. Everts, 


Grand Rapids, 


Kent. 


Charles E. Farrington, 


Milan, 


Monroe. 



NAMES. 

Thomas "W. Farrington, 
Delos Flint, 
Charles T. Foster, 
Henry B. Frost, 
Stephen Galloway, 
Alanson E. Goodrich, 
Solon E. Grant, 
William M. Greene, 
Josiah T. Hammond, 
David E. ninman, 
Charles E. Hollister, 
George P. Humphrey, 
Horatio Ives, 
Samuel L. Kilbourne, 
Jared M. Knapp, 
Charles D. Lewis, 
Henry G. Lewis, 
Mortimer Markham, 
Orlando Markham, 
Charles J. Monroe, 
Nathan D. Mnssey, 
George O. Nelson, 
Marcus II. Peck, 
Victor Phillips, 
William W. Preston, 
Merritt C. Skinner, 
Merritt B. Snyder, 
Enos S. Stedman, 
Ulysses Stedman, 
Albern IL Sweet, 
James Taylor, 
Seneca N. Taylor, 
Griffin D. Thurston, 



POST OFFICE. 


COUNTY. 


Milan, 


Monroe. 


Novi, 


Oakland. 


Lansing, 


Ingham. 


Eaton Rapids, 


Eaton. 


Hamburg Village, Livingston, 


DeWitfc, 


Clinton. 


Jackson, 


Jackson. 


Lansing, 


Ingham. 


Jackson, 


Jackson. 


Buchanan, 


Berrien. 


Nebraska, 


Clinton. 


San ford, 


Ingham. 


Unadilla, 


Livingston. 


Sanford, 


Ingham. 


Bellevue, 


Eaton. 


Lansing, 


Ingham. 


Lansing, 


Ingham. 


Gaines' Station, 


Genesee. 


Gaines' Station, 


Genesee. 


Lawrence, 


Van Buren, 


Romeo, 


Macomb. 


Detroit, 


Wayne. 


Pontiac, 


Oakland. 


Lansing, 


Ingham. 


Fred on ia, 


Washtenaw. 


Lansing, 


Ingham. 


Hanover, 


Jackson. 


Unadilla, 


Livingston. 


Unadilla, 


Livingston. 


Burns, 


Shiawassee, 


Unadilla, 


Livingston. 


Oakland, 


Oakland. 


Sturgis, 


St. Joseph. 



NAMES 


POST OFFICE. 


oorrarrr. 


George G. Torrey, 


Birmingham, 


Oakland. 


Heman J. Yandusen, 


Novi, 


Oakland. 


Solon A. Whitcomb, 


Detroit, 


Wayne. 


George N. Walker, 


Sanford, 


Ingham. 


Webster A. Wood, 


Livonia, 


Wajne. 



CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION. 



The Agricultural College of the State of Michigan was 
established in obedience to a requisition of the Revised Con- 
stitution of the State, adopted 15th August, 1850, which may 
be found in Art. 13: 

" Sec. 11. The Legislature shall encourage the promotion 
of intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement; and 
shall, as soon as practicable, provide for the establishment of 
an Agricultural School. The Legislature may appropriate 
the twenty-two sections of Salt Spring Lands now unappropri- 
ated, or the money arising from the sale of the same, where 
such lands have been already sold, and any land which may 
hereafter be granted or appropriated for such purpose, for the 
support and maintenance of such School, and may make the 
same a branch of the University, for instruction in agricul- 
ture and the natural sciences connected therewith, and place 
the same under the supervision of the Regents of the Uni- 
versity." 



ACT OF ORGANIZATION 



The Legislature, in order to carry out the foregoing pro- 
vision of the Constitution, at the session of 1855 passed the 
following act: 

L No. 130.] 

AN ACT for the establishment of a State Agricultural 

School. 

Section 1. The People of the State of Michigan e?iact, 
That the President and Executive Committee of the Michi- 
gan State Agricultural Society, be and are hereby authorized 
to select, subject to the approval of the State Board of Edu- 
cation, a location and site for a State Agricultural School, 
within ten miles of Lansing; and subject to such approval, 
contract for and purchase for the State of Michigan, such 
lands, not less than five hundred acres, nor more than one 
thousand acres, in one body, for the purpose of an experi- 
mental farm and site for such Agricultural School: Provided, 
That the amount to be paid for such farm and site shall not 
exceed fifteen dollars per acre, and that the conveyance or 
conveyances be made to the State of Michigan. 

Sec. 2. There is hereby appropriated twenty-two sections of 
Salt Spring Lands, or the money arising from the sale there- 
of, referred to in article 13, section 11, of the Constitution of 
the State of Michigan, for the purchase of land for such site 



12 

and location, and the preparation thereof, the erection of 
buildings, the purchase of furniture, apparatus, library and 
implements, payment of professors and teachers, and other 
necessary expenses to be incurred in the establishment and 
successful operation of said school. 

Sec. 3. Upon the execution and delivery to the Secretary 
of State of the proper conveyance or conveyances of the 
land, the purchase of which is provided for in the first sec- 
tion of this act, and the certificate of the Attorney General 
that he has examined the title to the same, and finds it unen- 
cumbered, and that the conveyance or conveyances are exe- 
cuted in due form, and a certificate of the President and 
Secretary of the Board of Education, that the same is in ac- 
cordance with the contract or contracts for the purchase of 
the same, and that the location has been approved by them, 
the Auditor General shall draw his warrant or warrants on 
the State Treasurer for the amount of such purchase, in favor 
of the party or parties to whom such sum or sums shall be 
due, payable out of said salt spring lands, or money accruing 
from the sale of the same; and the said certificates in this 
section mentioned, shall be filed and preserved in the office 
of the Secretary of State. 

Sec. 4. Upon the purchase of such location and site, there 
shall be established on such site, under the direction and su- 
pervision of the State Board of Education, an Agricultural 
School, by the name and style of the Agricultural College of 
the State of Michigan, and the chief purpose and design of 
which shall be to improve and teach the science and practice 
of agriculture. 

Sec. 5. The course of instruction in said College shall in- 
clude the following branches of education, viz. : an English 
and Scientific Course, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Bota- 
ny, Animal and Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology, Geol- 
ogy, Mineralogy, Meteorology, Entomology, Veterinary Art, 
Mensuration, Leveling and Political Economy, with Book- 



13 

Keeping and the Mechanic Arts which are directly connected 
with agriculture, and such other [studies] as the Board of Ed- 
ucation may from time to time see fit to prescribe, having refer- 
ence to the objects specified in the previous section; and the 
said Board may establish such Professorships, and employ 
such Professors and Teachers, to be called the Board of Instruc- 
tion of said College, for the instruction aforesaid, as they may 
judge best for such object: Provided, The sum paid such pro- 
fessors and teachers for the first year after said College shall go 
into operation, shall not exceed the sum of five thousand dol- 
lars, and for the next year, not exceeding the sum of six thous- 
and dollars, and for any years thereafter such a sum as the State 
Board of Education may deem necessary for the successful 
operation of the institution. Tuition in said institution shall 
be forever free to pupils from this State, and any number of 
pupils may be admitted who shall apply from any part of 
this State: Provided, That in case more pupils apply than 
can be accommodated or taught, then said Board shall adopt 
some equitable plan, giving to each county a number accord- 
ing to the ratio of population, as it. shall appear from the 
census last taken; and in that case, those from each county 
shall be admitted in the order in which they shall apply, until 
the quota of such county be full. 

Sec. 6. There shall be two scholastic terms in each year, 
the first term commencing on the first Wednesday in April, 
and ending on the last Wednesday in October, the second 
term commencing the first Wednesday in December, and 
ending on the last Wednesday in February; and no pupil 
shall be received for less than one term, unless by special 
permission from the Board of Instruction. 

Sec. 7. The Board of Education, upon consultation with 
the Board of Instruction, shall, from time to time, fix and 
establish rules as to the number of hours which shall be de- 
voted to manual labor and to study, which may be different 
in different terms or seasons; but during the first term in 



14 

each year, the time devoted to labor shall not be less than 
three nor more than four hours each day; and no student or 
pupil of said College shall be exempt from such labor, except 
in case of sickness or other infirmity. 

Sec. 8. The Board of Education shall appoint one of the 
professors in said College to be President thereof, and one to 
be its Secretary, and one to be its Treasurer; and the Board 
of Instruction may establish such rules and regulations, from 
time to time, for the government of said College and instruc- 
tion therein, as they may deem proper in any matter not reg- 
ulated by the Board of Education; and the rules and regu- 
lations adopted by such Board of Instruction, shall remain 
in lull force until altered by said Board of Education. And 
said Board of Instruction shall have power, subject to the 
approval of the Board of Education, to establish By-laws lor 
the government and discipline of the pupils of said College, 
in regard to conduct and behavior, and to affix such pecuni- 
ary penalties as they may deem proper, and to prescribe the 
causes for expulsion or dismissal of any such pupil, which 
By-laws shall have the force of law, unless altered, modified 
or repealed by the Board of Education or the Legislature; 
and the Board of Education shall fix the compensation to be 
credited or paid for the labor performed by pupils, under the 
provisions of section seven of this act. 

Sec. 9. The President of said Board of Instruction shall 
preside at all meetings of said Board, except in case of sick- 
ness or absence; in which case the Board may elect one of 
their number President pro tempore; and it shall be the duty 
of the President to see that all the regulations established by 
this Act, by the Board of Education, and by the Board of In- 
struction in regard to the government and instruction in said 
College, be enforced. 

Sec. 10. The Secretary of said Board of Instruction shall 
record all the proceedings of said Board, and all regulations 
and by-laws for the government of said College, and shall 



15 

publish the same, and furnish a copy thereof to the Governo? 
of this State, to each member of the Board of Education, to 
the county clerk of each county, and to the clerk of each or- 
ganized township iu this State. He shall also keep a full 
record of all improvements and experiments made on said 
lands, their cost and results. He shall also keep a careful 
account with each field, in connection with a plan of the 
farming lands or farm, exhibiting the position of each, in 
which shall be shown the manner and cost of preparing the 
ground, the kind of crop, time of planting or sowing, the 
after condition, the time and manner of harvesting, the labor 
devoted to each process and its cost price, with the cost of 
preparing the matured crop for market, and the price for 
which it was sold, and of such other matters as the Boards of 
Education and of Instruction, or either of them, may require 
of him; and he shall furnish a copy thereof at the end of 
each term to the President of the Board of Education; and 
the said record shall, at all reasonable hours, be open to the 
inspection of any citizen of this State. 

Sec. 11. The Treasurer shall receive and keep all moneys 
arising from the sale of products of the farm, and from fines 
and penalties that may be imposed, and shall give bonds in 
such sum as the Board of Education may require. He shall 
pay over all moneys upon the warrant of the President, 
countersigned by the Secretary, on account of such contin- 
gent expenses of the institution as may arise. He shall ren- 
der annually, in the month of December, to the Board of 
Education, and as often as required by said Board, a full and 
true account of all moneys received and disbursed by him; 
stating for what received and paid, and shall produce vouch- 
ers for such payments. The surplus money, if any remain 
in his hands at the time of rendering such account, shall, if 
required by said Board, be paid over to the State Treasurer, 
to be placed to the credit of said institution. 

Sec. 12. After said College shall have commenced its first 



16 

term, the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall appoint 
visitors for the same, who shall perform the like duties re- 
quired of such visitors by law, in reference to the State Nor- 
mal School. 

Sec. 13. This act shall take effect immediately. 

Approved February 12, 1855. 



LEGISLATION IN 1857, 



The Legislature of the State, at the la6t session, made pro- 
vision for further maturing and sustaining tho Institution 
during the next two years, by the liberal appropriation of 
Forty Thousand Dollars, according to the terms of the fol- 
lowing Act: 

[ No. 142. J 

AN ACT making an appropriation for the State Agricul- 
tural School, and to amend the act entitled " an Act for 
the establishment of a State Agricultural School," approved 
February twelfth, eighteen hundred and fifty -five. 

Section 1. The People of the State of Michigan- enact, 
That there be and there is hereby appropriated out of the 
Treasury of this State, the sum of forty thousand dollars, for 
the erection of buildings, purchase of furniture, apparatus t 
implements and library, payment of Professors and Teachers, 
and to improve and carry on the Farm, and other nec- 
essary expenses to be incurred in the successful operation of 
said School during tho years eighteen hundred and fifty-seven 
and eighteen hundred and fifty-eight; which sum shall be 
drawn from the Treasury on the presentation of the proper 
certificates of the Board of Education to the Auditor Gen- 
eral, and on his warrant to the State Treasurer. 

Sec. 2. Section second of the act entitled " an Act for the 
establishment of a State Agricultural School, 11 approved Fel>- 

3 



18 

ruary twelfth, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, is hereby 
amended so as to read as follows, to-wit: That there is hereby 
appropriated twenty-two sections of Salt Spring Lands, or 
the money arising from the sale thereof, referred to in Article 
thirteen, Section eleven, of the Constitution of the State of 
Michigan, for the purchase of land for such site and location, 
and the preparation thereof, the erection of buildings, the 
purchase of furniture, apparatus, library and implements, 
payment of Professors and Teachers, and other necessary 
expenses, to be incurred in the establishment and successful 
operation of said School; which sum shall be drawn from 
the State Treasury on the presentation of the proper certifi- 
cates of the Board of Education to the Auditor General, and 
on his warrant to the State Treasurer; but not to exceed in 
the whole amount the sum of fifty-six thousand, three hun- 
dred and twenty dollars, the minimum price of said twenty- 
two sections, unless the whole proceeds of the sales of said 
sections shall exceed that sum, and then not to exceed the 
amount of such proceeds. 

Approved February 16, 1857. 



LOCATION AND BUILDINGS. 



On the 16th June, 1855, the President and Executive 
Committee of the. State Agricultural Society — present, A. Y. 
Moore, President, J. C. Holmes, Secretary, and Messrs. S. 
M. Bartlett, Payne K. Leach, James Baylet, Justus Gage 
and John Starkweather — in accordance with the provisions 
of the foregoing law, selected the tract for the Agricultural 
Farm offered by A. R. Burr, Esq., of Lansing, consisting of 
676 57-100 acres. The selection was approved, and the pur- 
chase made. The tract lies three and a half miles directly 
east from Lansing, and the avenue eastward, starting from 
the front of the Capitol, would pass in front of the College 
Buildings. It lies on both sides of the Cedar River, and is 
regarded as a judicious and admirable location, although it 
was nearly in a state of nature at the time of the purchase. 

Under the Superintendence of Mr. S. M. Bartlett, of 
Monroe, a College Building 100 feet by 50, and a Boarding 
House of nearly equal size, each three stories high, and of 
brick, have been erected. 

To Mr. J. C. Holmes great credit is due for his indefati- 
gable exertions in all the incipient movements that have 
resulted in the establishment, so far, of the Institution, 



DEDICATION. 



A corps of Professors having been chosen, and fho insti- 
tution prepared for the reception of Students, it was dedi- 
cated by the Board of Education to the purposes for ■which 
it was designed, with appropriate services, on the 13th day 
of May, 1857, in the presence of the Governor, several offi- 
cers of the State Government, and a large concourse of citi- 
zens, from various parts of the State. 

At 10 o'clock A. M., Hon. H. L. Miller, President of the 
Board of Education, called the assemblage to order, with the 
following brief remarks: 

Fellow Citizens — The attendance here to-day, of so large 
an assemblage of the citizens of the State, to witness ancl : 
take part in the opening of this Institution, affords me a high 
satisfaction, and I feel it to be a grateful duty, on the part of 
the Board of Education, to express the great pleasure it gives 
them. It manifests a warm interest in the cause of Educa- 
tion; also, in that department of it to which this Institution 
is to be more particularly devoted. During the time which 
this Board have been occupied in carrying out the designs 
which the State had committed to them, they have felt 
strongly that everything connected with the Institution was 
new, and that, in pushing them to completion, they would 
have to undergo peculiar trials, and that they could look no- 
where for precedents by which they might be guided. T hcy 



22 

are now happy to feel, by your presence, that your counten- 
ance and sympathy are with them. In commencing the ex- 
ercises, with which it has been deemed proper to celebrate 
the occasion of delivering the College and all its appurten- 
ances into the charge of the Faculty, that that body may now 
commence the labors of instruction, I deem it peculiarly 
appropriate to recognize the guardianship of that one Great 
Being, who is before all human powers, and we will now 
commence our exercises by reading a portion of the Divine 
Word. 

The Rev. Mr. "Wtllard, a member of the Board, then rose 
and read in an impressive manner, the Third Chapter of the 
Book of Proverbs. 

The Rev. Mr. Mahon made a prayer. 

The Hon. John R. Kellogg, the senior member, in behalf 
of the Board of Education, then delivered the Institution 
and Farm into the charge of the President and Faculty, with 
the following remarks: 

Me. President — It seems to have been a beneficent pro- 
vision of the great Creator, that all the generations of men 
that have existed upon the earth, and all of the human race 
that now live upon it, and which may hereafter be called 
upon to fill our places; each in their day have had, or have 
now, or will have their certain duty. Nations have national 
duties; States have State duties; and individuals have each 
a certain part to perform, which add to that progress which 
seems to be the destiny of all. Each and all are responsible, 
and must, in the end, stand before the great law-giver and 
life-giver who upholds all things by his omnipotent power, 
and who will hold the scales of justice, whilst every knee 
shall bow, and every tongue shall confess, that the neglect of 
a duty, public or private, will not be a small or unimportant 
matter. He who gave us life, and gave us duties to perform, 
has a wise design to be fulfilled, nor may His laws be neg- 
lected with impunity. 



23 

We, Sir, to-day, as representatives of the State, have a 
duty to perform, and we find it a pleasant duty — for it is 
an evidence of that inevitable law which the Creator has 
extended over all his works. It is, Sir, a duty whose per- 
formance marks a new era in the progress of the State. It 
is a duty, the fulfillment of which, will aid in developing that 
intelligence, which is the breath of life to civilized nations. 
This world which we inhabit was made by progressive steps, 
and its Maker, at the close of each successive day, on a re- 
view of his work, pronounced " all very good." Happy, 
thrice happy for us, if we shall be able to look back on the 
work we have done, and on our consciences as God has given 
us ability, be able to say that we have done all things well — 
it is all very good. 

The work which the State has endowed us with the power 
to carry up to the point, when it passes from the hands of 
the Board of Education, is peculiar. After making all the 
preliminary arrangements in regard to fitting this globe for 
man's inheritance, the Creator seems to have paused to review 
his work, and "Behold, there was not a man to till the 
ground." Then out of that very ground was man formed in 
the image of Him who breathed into his nostrils the breath 
of life; then was he also endowed with special powers; then 
was authority given unto him over all things, and then was 
issued the command that he should go forth and till it; but 
not till after the seed of sin was sowed by man himself— and 
yet man's vocation was not yet taken away, for although the 
curse was upon all, yet in his mercy it was ordained that 
summer and winter, seed time and harvest, should forever 
remain, and by the sweat of our brows were we assured that 
our bread should be earned. What, though the untilled earth 
send forth its thorns and its briars; labor and toil, by the 
great primeval law, beautifies and adorns it with perennial 
harvests, and with the flowers and fruits that are ever a glo- 
rious testimony to the wisdom that gave them and us exist- 
ence. 



To yon, Mr. President of the College, by the Board of 
Education, is now committed the charge of this important 
Institution, To you. Sir, and to the gentlemen associated 
with yon as Professors, and your aids in instructing a large 
portion of the youth of Michigan, in a knowledge of the 
capabilities of the soil, is given the glory of carrying out 
this great work to a perfection which shall elicit the thanks 
of coming generations. We are well aware that the respon- 
sibilities and duties attached to the position which you have 
accepted, are to be neither light to carry, nor easy to perform. 
But we have full confidence that you enter upon the charge 
confided to you, with courage, with a determination to carry 
out faithfully the design which it has become a State duty to 
put in execution. From the seed which the State has planted, 
and which you are to watch in its earliest growth, we look 
for a harvest worthy of her liberality, and of your own emi- 
nent position and character. Let the results be worthy of 
yourself, worthy of the age in which we live, and of the State 
of Michigan. With my own prayer that God will give his 
blessing to your efforts to add to the progress of the age, the 
country, and the State, we commit into your hands the Agri- 
cultural College of the State of Michigan. 

The Hon. Joseph R. Wiixia^is, President of the Institu- 
tion, then made the following Address: 

Gentlemen of the Board of Education 

of the State of Michigan : 

it seems appropriate, on the assumption of the duties 
and responsibilities of their position, that in behalf of the 
Faculty, I should indicate the design, the scope, and the ca- 
pacities of this Institution, explain some of the difficulties 
that beset it, and state some of the advantages which may 
result from its establishment. 

The energies and aspirations of our race often feel the 
want of agencies necessary to their further development, be- 



25 

fore such agencies appear. Rarely, however, is any enter- 
prise matured, which the condition of society does not de- 
mand. Perfect as our educational systems are, for a long 
time a great vacuum has remained to be filled. 

Besides the Common School and the University, there have 
been no Institutions, which, taking the student directly from 
the common school, and omitting studies purely literary and 
classical, on which he has no years to bestow, yet carry him 
farther than the University in the application of modern sci- 
ence to the practical business of life, particularly Agricultu- 
ral Life. In the higher institutions, men were fitted, yea, 
accomplished, for professional life, but during four years de- 
votion to severe study, few attainments were made valuable 
to a cultivator of the soil, while tastes and habits were ac- 
quired, which created indifference and inaptitude to the most 
healthy and rational of the occupations of man. 

By reason of traditionary neglect and prejudice, seven- 
eighths of the race, on whose toil all subsist, have been deemed 
unworthy of mental cultivation, while the smaller fraction, 
who live, some by most honorable toil and devotion to human 
interests, and some on the miseries, credulity, ignorance, and 
even crimes of mankind, have been deemed worthy of the 
highest advantages of education. The parasite, insinuating 
itself among the bark, has been carefully nurtured, while the 
parent tree, grappling its strong roots in the earth, has been 
neglected. 

That the agricultural masses have felt keenly this great 
want, is evidenced by the simultaneous creation of Agricul- 
tural Societies and Periodicals, and the craving for more 
abundant knowledge. Colleges are springing from the same 
necessity. New York and Pennsylvania are maturing, and 
two or three other States are taking the initiatory steps to- 
wards establishing Agricultural Colleges. Here, on the very 
margin of the cultivated portions of our country, where the 
M forests primeval " are just vanishing before the encroach- 



ments of civilization, the youthful and vigorous State of 
Michigan, first among her sister States, dedicates this Insti- 
tution to the instruction of men who are devoted exclusively 
to the cultivation of the earth. Established on no precedent, 
it is alike a pioneer in the march of men and the march of 
mind. It is peculiarly fit that such an enterprise should be 
founded on the confines of the country, which a native poet, 
Whittier, so gushingly describes : 

"The rudiments of empire here, 
Are plastic yet and warm, 
The chaos of a mighty world 
Is rounding into form." 

The elements of the Institution around us, are rough and 
crude, but even in the embryo, we recognize an enlightened 
forecast, that would do honor to those venerable Common- 
wealths which have stamped their indelible impress on the 
history of mankind. 

I will, at the outset, deal with some of the objections to 
this Institution. Men will brand it as an experiment. They 
will demand results before they are willing to afford aid or 
sympathy. Even legislators pause in maturing the plan, 
which in its design and nature, must be comprehensive or 
prove abortive. They propose to afford it a liberal endow- 
ment, and place it on an immutable foundation, if it shall 
prove successful. They propose to allow us the range of 
waters, when we have learned to swim on dry land. 

The charge that an enterprise is an experiment has no ter- 
rors for me. When Clinton was promoting his great canal 
project, it was denounced as the insane vision of a theorist, 
and his surveys were branded as imposture. Yet these lands 
you occupy, and large portions of the north-west, now cov- 
ered with thriving communities, would have been to this day 
vast solitudes, had his experiment been crushed. Throughout 
Europe, even in England, they use sickles to cut wheat. To 
them the cradle scythe would be an experiment. When 



27 

McCormick's Reaper was exhibited at the World's Fair, it 
was ridiculed by a leading London periodical, as an ugly 
cross between a flying-machine and a windmill. When 
Jethro Wood's cast-iron plow, which has saved to the farmers 
of this country tens of millions of dollars, was first intro- 
duced, it met with unsparing ridicule. The first man who 
budded a fruit tree was doubtless regarded as a greater dolt 
than the subscriber, a few years since, to an agricultural 
paper; and the man who first plowed in clover to renovate 
the soil, his neighbors doubtless advised to go to the Lunatic 
Asylum, or join the Agricultural Society. The first attempt 
to place an iron shoe on a horse's hoof, was doubtless ridi- 
culed as an attempt to improve a limb rightly fashioned by 
the Creator. It is less than a century since people were 
mobbed in England, for attempting the introduction of a 
saw-mill, insisting on the prescriptive right of the laborer to 
the employment of cleaving lumber with wedges. It is said 
that no physician who had reached the age of forty, embraced 
at its announcement, or ever admitted, Harvey's discovery 
of the circulation of the blood. 

The next objection urged to this Institution will be its Cost, 
and the alleged taxation necessary to its support. The Insti- 
tution has been initiated and thus far matured, exclusively 
from the $56,000 derived from Salt Spring Lands donated to 
the Territory of Michigan by the general government, and 
not a dollar of the additional $40,000 appropriated by the 
last Legislature, for use during the next two years, is yet con- 
sumed. In the next place, the railroads and mining corpo- 
rations of the State, pay into her treasury a large specific 
tax, and it seems the plainest exercise of justice, to devote 
moneys so levied to enlarge the intelligence, and increase the 
production of the State. 

It becomes men to examine the whole subject of taxation, 
and discriminate against that only which is oppressive or of 
doubtful utility, and bear with cheerfulness that which is 



fraught with beneficent results. Our national government 
is now annually expending over $70,000,000. That sum is 
nearly all consumed in supporting destructive agencies. The 
Army costs more than $18,000,000, and the Navy more that 
| $12,000,000. " They toil not, neither do they spin." The 
, Patent Office is designed to foster and promote inventive 
genius, to abridge human labor, and to bring comfort to 
every door. Yet, while vast appropriations are made for 
other agencies, none are made for this. The only creative 
and positively producing function of the government is com- 
pelled to support itself. The fees exacted from inventors, 
support the Bureau. It is true, however, that $75,000 per 
annum have been appropriated for the purchase and distri- 
bution of seeds, plants, cuttings, &c, and the Annual Agri- 
cultural Report is printed by Congress. The whole sum paid l 
by the government for the promotion of Agriculture, may 
amount to $250,000 per annum, out of more than $70,000,000 : 
expended — one two hundred and eightieth part of the whole. 
We have a Senate at "Washington, of the great statesmen of 
the nation. A few weeks ago it revised its Committees, and 
abolished the Committee on Agriculture. So the Senate of ' 
your country recognizes in its organization, no such national 
interest as Agriculture. Alexander of Russia does better, 
for the ruling industry of his people is made an object of 
solicitude in a department of his government. 

The United States Agricultural Society, at its annual meet- 
ing in January last, strongly urged the appropriation of 
500,000 acres of land by Congress, to each of the States, for 
the promotion of Agricultural Education. The Legislature 
of Michigan, in 1850, anticipated them, by instructing their 
delegation in Congress to ask 350,000 acres of land, for the 
establishment of Agricultural Schools in this State. Possi- 
bly, Congress may hereafter deem it as sagacious to enlighten 
the future occupants of the continent, as to construct rail- 
roads for transporting them. Yast grants of lands have re- 



29 

cently been made to the North- Western States. Without dis- 
paragement to other enterprises, it is a self-evident proposi- 
tion, that no appropriation can be so far-reaching and so 
vital, even to the material prosperity of new communities, 
and so prolific of incalculable results, as donations for edu- 
cation. Let us hope, therefore, that in due time tho national 
government will permanently endow this and similar institu- 
tions, and relieve the people of Michigan, and other States, 
from every duty but a benignant guardianship. 

It would be well, therefore, for a generous citizen to con- 
sider whether the enterprise before us, designed to multiply 
his earnings and enjoyments, and elevate his calling to a 
higher dignity, is worthy of the captious and trivial objection 
that it may cost him an insignificant taxation. Two cents 
per annum for each inhabitant, embracing the next ten years' 
would probably cover appropriations for the College as am- 
ple as those of last winter, and far more than could be re- 
quired. It would not amount to six kernels of corn per day. 
If an Institution should perish from such a consideration, the 
wisdom of the people will degenerate to a level of the wis- 
dom of the Senate. 

The next objection is embraced in a question triumphantly 
asked, " How can you teach a man to plow or to hoe? " that 
is, " How can his practical skill be improved ? " I contend 
that even in this narrow view, the mere application of labor, 
there is much to be learned. An English ditcher will dig 
three rods of ditch to your two, and do it better. An Eng- 
lish plowman, taught with implements far interior to yours, 
will strike a straighter and far more even furrow than you 
can. If a farmer's practical skill cannot be improved, he 
had better abandon tho threshing machine and take up the 
flail, and had better resume the sickle for harvesting his 
grain. The average production of corn in Michigan is twen- 
ty-three bushels per acre; of wheat, less than thirteen bushels 
per acre, and of wheat in Ontario, a model county in New 



30 

York, fifteen bushels per acre. Now, if the practice is right,, 
the farmer does not understand the true principles of culture. 
If his theory is right, then his practice is wrong. Probably 
theory and practice are both wrong, and there is room for 
vast improvement in both. In some of the old countries in 
Europe, the wheat crop runs up to forty, fifty, and even sev- 
enty bushels per acre, and their average crop is nearer forty 
than thirty bushels per acre. The difference between thir- 
teen bushels and thirty bushels per acre would make an 
annual gain to Michigan, during the next six years, of 
$10,000,000 at least. Have the wheat growers of Michigan 
nothing to learn ? 

The exhaustion and deterioration of the soil has been esti- 
mated at ten cents per acre, annually. There are about 
130,000,000 acres of arable land in the United States. There 
must be a loss of $13,000,000 annually, therefore, mostly for 
want of practical skill in resuscitation of the land. The cul- 
tivated land of Michigan is 3,000,000 acres. The loss to 
Michigan, therefore, from this cause, is about $300,000 an- 
nually. This exhaustion of the soil is a great National prac- 
tical error and sin. Has the farmer nothing practically to 
learn ? 

Pass along any great thoroughfare, and you will soon come 
to a farmer who yards his cattle in the public highway, wastes 
the manure which should fertilize his fields, and allows the 
public to thread their breakneck passage among them. The 
next, perhaps, feeds his corn whole, and loses a third of its 
nutriment. Another deprives his pigs of light, and their 
growth stops. Another allows pestilential gasses, generated 
under his barn, to be inhaled by his stock. Another allows 
his cattle to drink out of mere mud holes, instead of pure 
water. Another allows his sheep in winter to go without 
any water at all. The next exposes his calves and colts to 
the wintry storms, thus arresting their growth, while it would 
absolutely cost less to keep them growing and housed. The 



31 

next has perhaps not a fit tool to work with efficiency on his 
whole farm. Another sows poor or mixed seed, or not half 
enough, and as a consequence reaps half a crop. The next 
ploughs his land but three or four inches deep. He has little 
faith in deep ploughing and thorough pulverization, but lias 
full faith in the signs of the zodiac, the moon and luck. He 
believes in good luck while putting in the seed, and has a. 
realizing sense of ill luck in harvesting, costly experience in 
both theory and practice. 

I could extend this list of practical errors to an indefinite 
length. Such facts prove, that instead of less, the farmer has 
more to learn practically about his business than any other 
man in the world. In fact, one-third of the industry and 
energies of the farmers of our country, are literally wasted 
in consequence of ignorance, and defiance of all rules of 
thrift and economy. The same recklessness among men in 
other pursuits, would result in immediate bankruptcy and 
starvation. 

Some ten years ago the potatoe rot seized the staple aliment 
of the people of Ireland, and before a year had expired, a 
million of human beings fertilized her soil. The disease must 
be caused by a violation of some vital law of germination 
and growth of the potatoe. That violation, I have no doubt- 
can and ought to be discovered. Have the peasantry and 
landlords of Ireland nothing practically to learn ? Several 
different insects commit ravages on the cotton plant. They 
fasten themselves upon it, at every stage of growth, from the 
germ to the boll. Has the cotton grower nothing to learn in 
arresting the ravages of these destructive pests ? Several 
different insects infest the wheat fields of our country. They 
take it in all its various stages, and sweep a region like the 
locusts of Egypt. Have the wheat growers nothing to- 
arrest and investigate in regard to this destructive enemy ? 
A malady has been sweeping off the swine in a large portion 
of the middle and western States, designated after a fearful 



scourge of the human race, the Hog Cholera. The loss is 
estimated by millions of dollars. "Whether caused by conta- 
gion, or whether it originates in some error of feeding, a law 
of the nutrition and growth of the animal is violated. Have 
the Hog growers nothing to learn ? 

The idea that perfect farming consists only in aptness at 
labor and strength of muscle, is at war with true philosophy. 
The sailor before the mast splices a rope, steers the ship, or 
rows a boat with perfect skill. Hurled into the ocean, he 
tides the waves with composure, and is saved in countless 
exigencies, where a landsman would surely have perished. 
Tossed fearfully on the yard arm, amid the play of the light- 
nings, and sleet, and the tempest, he reefs the sails with im- 
perturbed coolness. Is he a perfect sailor ? Oh no ! Silent, 
thoughtful students are at work in the National Observato- 
ries at London and Washington, preparing the Nautical Al- 
manac. Maps and Charts indicating the shoals and reefs 
and coasts are prepared for him at great expense and care. 
Prof. Maury has published his Directions for taking advan- 
tage of the winds and currents. By all the aids and appli- 
ances which science has furnished, the mariner can indicate 
upon the trackless ocean, almost the precise spot he occupies, 
and sleeps with composure and confidence. But is the pro- 
found scholar, from whose deductions the ship ia worked, the 
perfect sailor ? Oh no ! But the man who unites the highest 
practical aptness and skill in working the ship, with the sci- 
entific comprehension that enables him to use all the deduc- 
tions of Nautical Science, he is the most perfect sailor. He 
may be found among the officers of the ship. The most per- 
fect union of principles and practice constitute the sailor. 
What is the moral? Why, that in Agriculture, the most 
abundant knowledge of all known natural laws, and all ap- 
plicable scientific principles, must conspire with the most 
perfect skill, aided by energy, industry, economy, temperance 
and health to make the most accomplished farmer. 



33 

The difficulties which present themselves at the very 
threshold of this enterprise, it will be well to consider. 

We have no guides, no precedents. We have to mark out 
the Course of Studies, and the whole discipline and policy to 
be followed in the administration of the Institution. There 
are numerous Agricultural Schools in Europe, but while an 
inspection would afford important vital suggestions, they 
would afford no models for us. The Schools in Europe, in 
the nature of the case, must for the present, be designed for 
the stewards, factors, and hirers of the soil, who use the la- 
borers as serfs and instruments. In this country, the land- 
lord, farmer or middle man, and laborer, are united in the 
same man, the lord of his own acres, and by necessity he 
must have an education, to suit his own fortunate condition. 

Again, the Institution commences here, almost in a virgin 
forest, to be subdued and subverted, before it becomes an in- 
strument to maintain the self-sustaining character of the 
Institution, or a means of ample illustration. The labor and 
the appropriation must be largely bestowed, in creating what 
it is desirable that we should have at ready command. Thus 
the difficulties- of putting this new enterprise in operation, 
are enhanced, and the sphere of early usefulness greatly 
cramped. It would not be very surprising, if the already 
enlightened man, living on a long cultivated farm, or a prai- 
rie garden, obtains few lessons from the first practical re- 
sults here. The almost famine that now exists in these re- 
gions in regard to provender for beasts, and exorbitant price 
of articles of human consumption, present a serious, though 
temporary obstacle. However great these early embarrass- 
ments, many vital principles can be taught constantly, and 
even in the early clearing and j>reparing a farm for further 
use. 

The want of a permanent endowment will act as a dis- 
couragement. In its infancy, the Institution must rely on 
the caprice of successive Legislatures. The adoption of a 
5 



34 

permanent policy, requires a stable and reliant support, that 
will carry it through adversity, regardless alike of the froirns 
or smiles of indifference, ignorance or malice. 

Friends and enemies will demand too much, and that too 
early. The acorn we bury to-day, will not branch into a 
majestic oak to-morrow. The orchard we plant this year, 
will not afford a harvest of fruit the next. The Institution 
itself, like the seeds, the plants, the trees, the breeds, the very 
implements which come under its ordeal, requires patience, 
wisdom, time, for trial and development. 

The plan of the Institution is foreshadowed, and partially 
defined in the law of its organization. A system of instruc- 
tion must now be adopted. It is proposed to take some of 
the youth of the State from the Common School, and give 
them thorough instruction in those natural sciences and prac- 
tical arts, which conspire to aid men in the cultivation of the 
earth. It is proposed to do for the farmer what West Point 
does for the soldier; what the recently established Scientific 
Schools of our country do for the machinist or engineer, or 
the Medical Course of btudies does for the physician. For 
the Board of Education to proclaim now, a fully matured 
plan, is impossible. Experience may demand a different 
policy, from what now seems imperative. "What the chief 
features of the Institution must be, and what its comprehen- 
sive scope and capacities ought to be, can, however, be suffi- 
ciently indicated. 

Heretofore a vast majority of young men have been barred 
from the advantages of a collegiate education. Free tuition 
is here supplied. An ample homestead is generously fur- 
nished by the State, where it is the duty and the privilege of 
the student to be employed, not less than three, nor more than 
four hours per day. The remuneration, after the estate is 
subdued and rendered productive, ought chiefly to board the 
student, leaving but a few expenses incumbent upon him. 

All educational systems are faulty, aye, pernicious, that 



35 

do not embrace physical health and development with intel- 
lectual cultnre. " A sound mind in a sound body," should 
be the aim and object. An amount of labor that will invig- 
orate without fatiguing the system, ought to bo as profitable 
and exhilarating, as it is necessary. 

At the outset we are met with the objection, that all 
attempts at associating labor with the acquisition of knowl- 
edge, in seminaries of learning, have proved failures. Some- 
times, however, the labor has been mere steady drudgery, in 
close apartments, and was illustrative of no truth. Some- 
times labor has been permitted to a portion of the students, 
who thus elected to eke out their means, while a larger class 
of daily associates were entirely exempt. Thus castes were 
created, where, of all the world, there should exist a warm 
and brotherly sympathy. That manual labor is incompatible 
with intellectual growth, is contrary to philosophy and expe- 
rience. Sedentary employment is much more likely to be so. 
Vigor of body gives vigor to the brain. In the Polytechnic 
Schools of Europe, and at the Military Academy at West 
Point, in our own country, the student is often engaged in 
severe physical exercise for many hours daily. But there, 
culture of mind and body are indissolubly connected, and 
the exercise becomes with many, the charm of their student 
life. Surely the labor that creates instead of destroys, and 
which causes the earth to bloom with luxuriance, and beauty, 
and groan under its abundance, should be as captivating as 
that, which is bestowed in reducing butchery to an exact sci- 
ence, and which recognizes occasional desolation of the earth, 
and wholesale destruction of the race, as a necessary and 
normal condition. 

How untenable these objections are, is evidenced by the 
tact, that gymnastic exercises are established in many class- 
ical institutions. It is only when labor becomes productive, 
that it ceases to be honorable, a preposterous idea that needs 
to be exploded. 



36 

There are scores of men, whose distinction was acquired 
by mental application during hours snatched from avocations 
requiring the severest labors. The individuals who exhibit 
the finest physical and mental combination, are the soldier, 
the navigator, the merchant, the engineer, and but occasion- 
ally the professional man and the farmer. Generally the 
professional man is exhausted by too severe devotion to men- 
tal labor, while the farmer suffers from the want of educa- 
tional advantages. Our countryman, Dr. Bowditch, whose 
name is imperishably enrolled by the side of those of La 
Place and Herschel, was all his life engaged in severe and 
apparently engrossing business. Elihu Burritt made his 
greatest acquisitions, while yet at his anvil. Ask any grad- 
uate of the University, who has acquired distinction, and he 
will tell you that the acquisitions of his four collegiate years 
are insignificant, compared with those made amid severe and 
engrossing labors, bodily and intellectual, of his subsequent 
life. Labor, in fact, is the doom of man, and intellectual 
culture the incident. 

But if manual labor has failed in all other Colleges, it 
ought not to fail here, where it is inseparably connected with 
the acquisition of knowledge. Thus allied, the employment 
should be a charm instead of a drudgery. Practical labor 
in this Institution, is the vital, cementing, invigorating influ- 
ence, that will give it dignity, and it is hoped, complete suc- 
cess. In former times, the tiller of the soil was as little capa- 
ble of thought as the brute he drove before him. He was 
brother to the clod he turned into the furrow. In fact, he 
was called a clod-hopper, a villain, a serf. But all this should 
be reversed. All nature teems with objects of beauty, and 
rational study, to a cultivated mind, rendered capable of ap- 
preciation of her charms. The great poet and prophet of 
our mother tongue, long before modern science had showered 
a flood of light on the subject, found 



37 

" Sermons in stones, books in the running brooks, 
And good in every thing." 

All Agricultural Library should be gathered here, more 
perfect than any which the country now affords. All knowl- 
edge relative to the Agriculture of the past, and its history, 
its progress, and its condition in modern states, should be 
accessible to the students. The library should embrace a 
wide range of science, law, literature, history, philosophy, 
medicine, &c. The application of science to the pursuits of 
the farmer and the mechanic, afford apt and conclusive illus- 
tration of the kindred and mutually dependent nature of all 
industry and all science. The Library should, therefore, be 
a noble and a comprehensive one. The subject commends 
itself to liberal citizens, whose public spirit may prompt them 
to promote this part of the enterprise by voluntary contribu- 
tions. 

A Museum of Models of Agricultural Implements, domes- 
tic and foreign, should be preserved. The crude implements 
of past times, and of other countries, and those used by the 
most benighted toilers of the present age, should be collated, 
side by side with the ingenious, light, and graceful imple- 
ments of our own era and country. Inventors, it is hoped, 
will take pride and satisfaction in depositing models of their 
inventions. As far as possible, models of machinery and 
tools used in the mechanic arts may be superadded. 

A Chemical and Philosophical Laboratory, second to but 
few in the country, is already obtained as an indispensable 
aid, even at the very commencement of the Institution. 

Cabinets of Natural Science should be collected, and illus- 
trative specimens of the mineral and vegetable kingdoms, 
especially of the State of Michigan. Few States are more 
opulent in mineral resources than our own. 

Specimens of Aninuds, llinls, Fishes and Insects, should 
be preserved, especially of all animals and insects that either 
destroy our crops or infest domestic animals and fowls, that 



38 

the student xnay have ample opportunities to study their na- 
ture and habits, and if possible discover means to arrest their 
ravages, and effect their extirpation. 

If Agriculture has not become, as it ought to be, a great 
central Science, which all other sciences should aid to enlarge 
and promote, certainly Horticulture deserves to rank as one 
of the Fine Arts. The Institution will embrace, therefore, a 
Horticultural Garden. Here the student may acquire knowl- 
edge, without being exposed to vexatious and expensive ex- 
periments, of the most delicious varieties of fruits, which our 
climate and soil will yield. He may study the destructive 
agents, such as the pear blight, the curculio, the canker 
worm, and the numerous parasitical insects that infest our 
vegetable gardens and orchards. An impressive lesson will 
constantly present itself, of how tasteful and attractive a 
homestead may be rendered at a trifling cost. Ripe fruit is 
a rare luxury; it is conducive to health; it may be a source 
of great profit. The garden itself will afford living, grow- 
ing, gorgeous illustrations for scientific examination. 

The Faum of nearly seven hundred acres, expands around 
us. This is the great central feature, the novel idea in an 
educational^ system on this continent. The tract possesses 
great natural capacities. The counterpart of almost every 
kind of land comprehended within the State, except the prai- 
rie, is embraced within its boundaries. Whoever supposes 
that the estate is to be used merely to test the vagaries of 
every wild visionary, is entirely mistaken. First and fore- 
most, it is the instrumentality by which the students can earn 
a portion of their education, and in the meantime ought to 
afford a perpetual example, of what high intelligence in the 
laborer, obedience to natural laws, and the most thrifty cul- 
ture, will produce. To test various modes of cultivation, the 
effect of rotation of crops, the economy of labor-saving im- 
plements, the relative qualities of manures, the results of 
judicious draining, the relative productiveness of seeds, veg- 



39 

etabtes and fruits, and the characteristics, uses and value of 
various breeds of stock — to observe critically the nature of 
diseases to both animal and vegetable life, a far wider field 
is afforded on a farm of seven hundred acres, than on a 
small, perhaps isolated homestead, or on farms of any extent, 
devoted to single or peculiar branches of culture. Thous- 
ands of farmers, sanguine of success, refrain from trials 
which their judgment approves, because they cannot afford 
the risk. If they run all the hazards, success will enure to 
the benefit of the whole community. If they fail, the same 
community hoot at them in derision. But here, trials can 
be made in entire independence of these considerations, and 
habits of comparison and discrimination may be acquired, 
of priceless benefit in subsequent life. A farmer has made 
a great stride towards success, who actually knows the best 
from extended observation, and who has become a connois- 
seur in all that pertains to his calling. The innumerable ad- 
vantages, indeed, of the estate, as an instrument, a means, 
an ever open volume of philosophy, constantly unfolding its 
lessons, it is impossible to enumerate. 

The question spontaneously comes to the lips of even 
friends, " What Course of Instruction is proposed to improve 
the farmer?" Here, again, details must be conformed to 
experience. 

First, we would begin with the farmer himself. It has 
been aptly said, that the only part of European agriculture 
that had not been improved, was the man himself who tilled 
the 6oiL Now, there is where we ought to begin. The far- 
mer ought first to be a sound man physically. He should 
be taught the laws on which his own life and health depend. 
He should have capacity for thought and action. Morally, 
physically, intellectually, he must be a man, before he can 
be a farmer. 

A farmer is a citizen, obliged to bear his portion of public 
burdens, amenable to the laws, and in a humbler or a wider 



40 

range, may become an exponent of society. He should be 
able to execute, therefore, the duties of even highly responsi- 
ble stations, with self-reliance and intelligence. The consti- 
tutions of the Union and of his State, he should comprehend, 
and the laws and forms relative to township and county offi- 
cers and their duties. He should be qualified to keep farm 
accounts, draught ordinary instruments, survey his farm, and 
level for drains or highways. His native language should 
be a flexible instrument at his command, which he should 
speak and write with ease and vigor, that he may impress 
and instruct others, avert mischief or inculcate truth. A 
man moved by earnest reflection or deep emotion, should 
have capacity to give them utterance and force in his mother 
tongue. The prophets and leaders among men, are those 
who impress themselves on all around them. These are inci- 
dental, yet necessary, though not original and primary ob- 
jects of the Institution. 

A farmer should be a chemist, so far as a comprehension 
of the principles which affect his daily life and business, is 
concerned. He may not be an analytic chemist, but he 
should be familiar with those laws, the observance of which 
is indispensable to safety and success, and the defiance of 
which is destruction. "When you make a loaf of bread, or a 
pound of butter, or a barrel of soap, or burn a coal-pit, or 
make a hot-bed in the garden, or ignite a friction match, or 
snap a percussion cap, or light a gas burner, you are playing 
with the most startling chemical laws. The extent of a man's 
acquirements in chemistry must depend on his taste and 
aptness, but all should be familiar with those ordinary laws 
which affect and penetrate our daily and hourly business and 
life, in country and city, within doors and without. 

This science teaches the value, qualities, nature and appli- 
cation of manures. The question of fertilization or steriliza- 
tion of the earth is here involved. A periodical renovation 
of the soil is not only the base of agricultural success, but in 



41 

fact of all political economy. How vast the difference be- 
tween leaving the value of fertilizers to mere vague conjec- 
ture, or making them the subject of positive analysis and 
actual demonstration, under the hands of the chemist. 

Physiology opens a wide field of study to the farmer, for 
on the observance of its laws depend the life, health and 
growth of all animal and vegetable nature. A violation of 
those laws results in decay and ruin; obedience to these 
meets with sure reward; defiance to those laws is the ill luck 
of poor farmers — observance of them is the good luck of the 
opposite class. This science teaches, that it is a law of 
growth, that like produces like, the best produces the best, in 
vegetable life, and the soundest and most symmetrical of an- 
imals only perpetuate a like progeny, and that it is actually 
cheaper to raise a good crop, a good ox, or horse or sheep, 
than a poor one. Embraced in this study are the wide ques- 
tions of adaptation of food, its amount, quality, preparation, 
to the nature and structure of animals. 

A farmer should receive instruction in the Veterinary Art 
from competent instructors, and when the Institution is 
brought to something like maturity, the farmers of the whole 
country should be invited to bring their diseased animals 
together, that they and the student may derive reciprocal 
advantage from treatment under skilled hands. 

Entomology, the Science relating to insects, is worthy of 
the farmer's attention. As the telescope has brought within 
• the scope of vision unnumbered worlds so deeply buried in 
the regions of space, that imagination hardly dares to wander 
there, so the microscope has penetrated in the other direction, 
and revealed objects too minute for ordinary vision. Entom- 
ology is almost a creature of the microscope. Each drop of 
water is peopled with animalcnlae. Vegetation is covered 
with myriads of minute life. Insects sometimes blight, Mast. 
and sweep with desolation great regions of country, destroy- 
ing fruits and crops. Other parasites, equally innumerable, 

6 



42 

infest the 6kins of animals, penetrating the surface, and im- 
pairing the vital functions of the victims. Observations of 
insects, their nature, habits and operations, from the larvas, 
or eggs, to full maturity, would be of great utility. In cases 
of the periodical return of these destructive pests, if hun- 
dreds of observers could systematically work together, results 
of value to the world might be arrived at. Two years ago, 
the wheat midge swept off millions of bushels of wheat in 
Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. Had there been a known 
remedy, a sum would have been saved in a single year large 
enough to endow perpetually fifteen Institutions like this. 
Such is the importance of searching investigation on this 
subject. I have no doubt that the day will come when the 
ravages of many insects will be averted. 

A knowledge of the principles of Natural Philosophy, as 
illustrated in mechanism, the laws of motion, a comprehen- 
sion of the laws and uses of the wonderful motive agencies of 
the age, and of electricity and magnetism, the best methods of 
construction, and relative economy of materials, open further 
unbounded ranges of useful study and inquiry to the farmer. 

Thus the field of research for the farmer has no boundary. 
New subjects, each in itself sufficient to engross years, con- 
stantly crowd upon the attention. The difficulty will be only 
in the selection. Master all human knowledge on the subject, 
and yet the greatest truths remain unfathomed. Do you un- 
derstand any of those influences and affinities by which a 
plant germinates and grows ? Do you understand the pro- 
cess by which a single flower blooms ? Do you understand 
how the clover, vivified by the genial influences of light and 
heat, gathers from the earth, and the air, the rains and the 
dews, contributions that make up the growth, and restored 
to the earth, renovates its exhausted condition ? These occult 
mysteries are beyond your comprehension. The growth of 
a single spire of vegetation, confounds your wisdom as much 
as the existence of those nebulas of worlds, whose light trav- 



43 

els thousands of years to reach our planet, llis creations 
are so brilliant and startling, that two centuries since, a 
chemist would have been hung for a wizard, yet all his anal- 
yses and re-combinations are but soap bubbles, compared 
with the silent and mysterious operations of Nature's great 
Laboratory all around us and beneath our feet, which clothe 
the earth with beauty, people it with myriad swarms of ani- 
mal life, and feed and clothe a thousand millions of human 
beings. Nature hugs within her bosom her most vital les- 
sons, undivulged. The Newtons and Keplers of Agriculture 
are yet to appear. The contemplation of these facts should 
awe us to humility. 

The chief end and object in educating the farmer is to 
teach him to subordinate himself, and all animal and vegeta- 
ble life around him, to those inexorable laws, moral and 
physical, the violation of which meets with swift retribution. 

A farmer should perpetually bear in mind that one gener- 
ation of men hold the earth in trust for the next. We are 
all linked indissolubly to the past by obligations of gratitude, 
and to the future by the glowing aspirations of hope. With- 
out the recognition by preceding generations of the ties of 
dependence and affiliation, we could pluck no fruit from the 
orchards planted a century ago. The delicious peach would 
have been a bitter almond. We should witness none of that 
perfection in crops which supply sustenance for the nations, 
nor in the flocks which whiten jjhe plains, nor the cattle upon 
a thousand hills. The triumphs of philanthropy as well as 
of genius, would have been wanting to relieve the sad and 
terrific history of our race, with its few charming and cred- 
itable pages. It is said that in Spain, when a man eats a 
fruit, he digs a hole in the ground with his heel, and plants 
the pit or seed by the road side. He thus pays to posterity 
the debt he owes to his ancestry. Accordingly, along the 
highways of Spain, the traveler is gratuitously supplied with 
fruit. Here is an illustration of how trifling and well-direct- 



44 

ed acts serve to hold by close bonds of sympathy successive 
generations of men, and how easily the comforts of industry 
and civilization are promoted. 

A great advantage of such Colleges as this, will be, that 
the farmer will learn to observe, learn to think, learn to learn. 
Men engaged in other callings, have constant communion 
and collision with each other. In the avocations of the city, 
men are in a constant school. The farmer, isolated and en- 
grossed with labor, feels not the advantage of constant dis- 
cussion and observation. That discouragement will be par- 
tially neutralized here. Three or four years of study, inter- 
course and discussion, amid the accessories and aids which 
such an Institution ought to afford, will surely tend both to 
enlighten and to fit the mind for further comprehension and 
acquirement. "When the bigotry that clings to traditionary 
errors and practices is superceded by a bold and comprehen- 
sive spirit of inquiry, the farmer has a new world opened 
before him. Every man who acquires thoroughly, even all 
the information attainable in a College like ours, should be- 
come a perpetual teacher, and example in his own vicinity. 
Thus one of the grand results should be a far wider dissemi- 
nation of vital Agricultural knowledge. 

With superior intelligence, and a pervading economy of 
methods, less labor and less time to produce equal results, 
need be employed in manual toil. The legitimate, though 
perhaps remote results of enlightening the whole Agricul- 
tural population, is that leisure will be afforded for still wider 
individual improvement, and a guaranty of a far larger share 
of earnings to individual comfort and enjoyment. Thus the 
tendency of such enterprises is towards a higher civilization. 

I have little fear of ultimate failure. If one Institution of 
this kind should languish, the indications are numerous that 
the auspicious moment will arrive when success will be 
achieved. Where a great need is felt and appreciated sim- 
ultaneously over a great country, it is merely a question of 



45 

time, when it shall be successfully met. But there must be 
a tolerant and hearty co-operation of the people of the State 
and its functionaries, of the successive students, and of the 
officers of government and instruction, to whom so sacred a 
trust is confided. On the great voyage of human progress, 
the channel is strewn with wrecks, which serve as beacons to 
warn succeeding voyagers from the shoals on every side. 

As to this youthful State belongs the honor of establishing 
the pioneer State Institution of the kind, and initiating what 
may prove one of the significant movements of the age, may 
she enjoy the glory of its complete and ultimate triumph. 

After the conclusion of the Address of Mr. Williams, His 
Excellency, Kinsley S. Bingham, Governor of the State, then 
addressed the assembly as follows: 

Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Board of Education: 
The people of the State of Michigan have acquired hon- 
orable distinction for their zeal and success in the cause of 
Education. Even before they had assumed the powers of a 
sovereign State, under a Territorial government, with but a 
few thousand inhabitants, they had a perfectly organized ed- 
ucational system, with their township School Inspector, and 
School Commissioners, a Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, and laws imposing the severest penalty for any waste 
or destruction upon the lands wisely reserved by Congress 
for the purposes of Education. So when, nearly a quarter of 
a century ago, the people assembled to form a State Consti- 
tution, preparatory to admission into this great Confederacy, 
they incorporated into that Constitution a provision that ''the 
Legislature shall encourage, by all suitable means, the pro- 
motion of intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improve- 
ment." And they declared that the proceeds of all lands 
granted by the United States for the support of schools should 
remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which should be in- 
violably appropriated to the support of schools throughout 



46 

the State. Provision was also made for a permanent rand 
for the support of a University. These judicious and timely 
measures have been faithfully adhered to and enforced. 
Among the first acts of State legislation was the organization 
of an educational system, consisting of a complete and thor- 
ough establishment of Primary Schools throughout the State, 
the founding of a University, embracing in the ample scope 
of its design, nothing less than furnishing to all the inhabit- 
ants of the State " the means of acquiring a thorough knowl- 
edge of the various branches of Literature, Science, and the 
Arts." Numerous Professorships were established in all the 
ordinary college studies, as well as in departments of law 
and medicine. A department of State Government was also 
established for the sale and control of the lands, out of which 
a fund was to be created for the maintenance and support of 
these institutions. These incipient steps so wisely taken at 
the formation of our State Government, have been crowned 
with eminent success. The University is completely organi- 
zed, and in successful operation. We have a Normal School 
for the education of teachers, of which our State may justly 
feel proud. The Primary and Union Schools, greatly im- 
proved and improving, draw within their influence nearly 
every one of the rising generation. Collegiate Institutions, 
both for male and female, sustained by private enterprise, 
have sprung up in various parts of the State. Michigan 
stands, to-day, very far in advance of any of her western 
sister States, not only in the high standard of public senti- 
ment which maintains her system of education, and in the 
thoroughness of its organization, but in the judicious man- 
agement of the means by which a fund has been created for 
their support. 

Yet, notwithstanding the system of education seemed so 
complete, a deep-seated and universal feeling prevailed 
throughout the State, that the great staple, Agricultural In- 
terest, was neglected; that while Professorships had been 



47 

very properly established to teach Astronomy, Civil Engi- 
neering, Medicine, and Law, we needed a school expressly 
adapted for the farmers 1 sons, to teach tho ennobling science 
of Agriculture. This prevailing sentiment prompted the 
Convention of 1850, for the revision of the Constitution, to 
engraft upon that instrument a provision that, as soon as 
practicable, the Legislature shall provide for the establish- 
ment of an Agricultural School. That " practicable " period, 
in the opinion of the Legislature of 1855, had arrived, and 
they passed an act appropriating the twenty-two sections of 
Salt Spring Lands, referred to in the Constitution, and au- 
thorized the Executive Committee of tho State Agricultural 
Society, in conjunction with the Board of Education, to select 
and purchase the farm for the location of the School. This 
duty has been happily and satisfactorily performed. A val- 
uable tract of land, of nearly seven hundred acres, has been 
purchased; very desirable on account of its location — three 
miles from the Capital — the variety and quality of its soil, 
its fine timber, the beautiful springs and rivulets by which it 
is watered, and the noble river which passes through it. 
Through the well directed efforts of the Board of Education, 
who are entitled to a vote of thanks of the people of the 
State, these noble structures have been raised, and these im- 
provements have been made. Professors in the various 
branches of education have been selected, and to-day, under 
the most favorable auspices, we have assembled to inaugurate 
the commencement of the Michigan Agricultural College. 
Gentlemen, if this experiment (for such we must admit it at 
present to be) shall prove successful, Michigan, first in many 
other matters of progress and improvement, will be justly 
entitled to tho high honor of having first established a Col- 
lege to teach the theory and practice of Agriculture. This 
interesting event, then, inspiring us with hopes of promise 
for the future, is cause for mutual congratulation. 

It is not my intention to discuss at any length the l>enefits 



48 

which the people of this State are to derive from the estab- 
lishment of this Institution. This has already been alluded 
to with great ability. 

Man derives his sustenance from the soil; and the progress 
of a people in civilization, in refinement, intelligence and 
wealth, is marked by the skill with which the earth is tilled. 
No country can flourish long, or maintain its moral or phys- 
ical health, where Agriculture is neglected or degraded. 

The amount of a farmer's sales, and his purchases, will 
depend upon the surplus products of his farm, and upon the 
profits of his labor. If these can be doubled by an improved 
system of husbandry, we double the substantial wealth of the 
community, and impart corresponding life and activity to 
every other branch of business. 

One of the highest objects to be attained by the establish- 
ment of an Agricultural College, is to elevate and dignify 
the character of labor. This can only be attained by an in- 
creased amount of knowledge, by making the laborer intelli- 
gent, by diffusing the light of science all around the pathway 
of the husbandman, so that an active, enlightened thought 
shall accompany the hand in guiding the plow, and in all 
the various operations of the field. In Europe, the people 
are divided into classes by the accident of birth — crowns and 
rank, distinction and wealth, are hereditary — labor is de- 
graded, and the laborer is ignorant, superstitious and poor. 
In those countries where it is most degraded, we find the 
greatest national weakness and decay. Spain, Portugal, and 
Italy, are illustrations of this fact. In the Southern States 
of our own country, the labor is performed by African slaves, 
and it is deemed the policy of their masters to hold them in 
the most profound ignorance, and to guard against any ap- 
proach of knowledge towards their dark minds by the sever- 
est legislative prohibitions. It is deemed disgraceful and 
degrading for the white man to labor. The dreadful conse- 
quences which naturally flow from this degradation of labor 



49 

are made apparent when we contrast the growth and pros- 
perity, in the elements of national wealth, of Virginia with 
New York, of Kentucky with Ohio, of Missouri with Illinois, 
or of Arkansas with Michigan. I flatter myself, therefore, 
that I trench upon no improper ground, when I say that the 
interests of this nation, its wealth, its strength, its perpetuity, 
demand that the labor of the country shall be free labor, 
gniJed by intelligence and skill, and that the laborer should 
be made the equal, in respectability and position, of any 
other class of community. General Washington, the Father 
of his country, whose name should always be mentioned with 
veneration and gratitude, was known to be an intelligent and 
practical farmer. His tastes for rural lite were refined and 
cultivated, and his beautiful 6eat on the banks of the Potomac, 
attracted the admiration of all who visited that delightful 
spot. lie left his dying testimony in favor of free labor by 
the emancipation of all his slaves; but his estate, falling into 
the hands of his heirs, has been cultivated ever since by 
slave labor. A few years since, in the month of June, I 
visited that venerable plantation, with a curious eye, to see 
how its farming operations were conducted. I need hardly 
assure you, for it is but a type of Virginia, that all over its 
hundreds of beautiful and once productive acres, there were 
the evidences of dilapidation and decay. It was fanned 
upon the exhaustive principle. No manure, no clover, no 
rotation of crops, had found their way into the management of 
that estate. When a field could produce no longer, it was 
turned out to rest. It was just the beginning of harvest. 
The wheat, though small, yielding not more than five or six 
bushels to the acre, was a beautiful plump berry, indicating 
what a Virginia soil might produce, with efficient and proper 
tillage. Turning my attention to one of the shops on the 
farm, I saw an old negro repairing the rude implements, 
preparatory to entering the harvest; but none of the highly 
improved modern farm implements were there The Ught 



50 

and easy cradle, the handsomely turned three-tined pitch- 
fork, the light, bright hoe and handy rake, were wanting — 
everything was clumsy, and rude, and old-fashioned. The 
necessary consequence of this was, that not one-fourth the 
amount of labor was accomplished, nor one-fourth the amount 
of production obtained from the estates, upon which repose 
the ashes of "Washington, that might have been, if modern 
improvement, intelligence, and skill, had been introduced 
into its management. "When I witnessed all this, I felt proud 
of Michigan — of the advance which her agriculturists had 
made, of the comforts and improvements which are every- 
where visible, and of the character of her intelligent and 
independent yeomanry. 

Formerly, farming was considered a business requiring 
mere physical power, with which the principles of natural 
science had little or nothing to do. To plow, to sow, and to 
gather the crop, was the general routine of farming opera- 
tions, regardless of the poverty which the practice was in- 
flicting upon the soil, and upon those who owned it. But 
science and art are now uniting their labors, and are drawing 
mutual aid from each other on the farm, as they have for 
some time been doing in the manufactory and in the shop of 
the artisan. A new era is dawning upon the vision of the 
farmer — new light is illumining his path, and a new interest 
and new pleasures are urging him on to improvement. His 
intellect comes to the aid of his hands; and as he traces 
effects to their causes, searches for the reason of his failures 
and disappointments, familiarizes himself with the operations 
of nature, and devises improvements in his art, his interest is 
increased, his profits are greatly enhanced, and he appreciates 
the full dignity of his chosen pursuit. Science is probably 
capable of rendering more important aid to husbandry than 
to any other branch of labor, and presents a wider field of 
useful study to the cultivator of the soil, than to any other 
class of society. 



51 

If this be true, how great is the opportunity, young gen- 
tlemen, which is afforded you — an opportunity for which 
your fathers might have sighed in vain — for it is nothing less 
than a free education for one of the noblest callings of man. 
It is hoped that by resorting to this College for your educa- 
tion, you will acquire a high sense of the dignity and res- 
pectability of labor. It is no uncommon thing for young 
men to leave other institutions of learning, with a distaste 
and a dislike for work — with their physical constitutions en- 
ervated, their usefulness impaired, and their days shortened 
by severe mental application. We trust that your labor here, 
will aid in securing for you a strong, vigorous, healthy phys- 
ical development — that your industry will be so directed, as 
to make labor pleasant and inviting — that your tastes will 
be refined and your thoughts purified — that instead of the 
uncertainty and the guess-work which has hitherto controlled 
farming operations, you will go to your occupation with a 
confidence which correct knowledge gives — that you will de- 
rive great pleasure by the aid of chemistry, in discovering 
the substances which enter into the composition of the ani- 
mal and vegetable system — in determining the comparative 
value of the different articles of food — what is necessary to 
produce fat, and what bone and muscle — in the scientific in- 
vestigation of the changes which take place in the seed-bear- 
ing plants, in the different stages of their growth — of the 
nature and character of soils, and of their capacity to pro- 
duce the various kinds of crops. These are the fields of 
study to which you are invited, and your Professors will 
unite with you in making experiments which will lead to 
correct conclusions. And we also trust, that' in investigating 
and demonstrating the beautiful and wonderful laws of na- 
ture, you will be led to admire the wisdom of that great and 
good Being, who ordained these laws and endowed us with 
faculties to discover and so control them, as to promote the 
happiness and well-being of our race. 



52 

. -Mr. President, and Gentlemen Professors, you need no 
lesson of instruction in your duties from me. The wisdom 
which has prompted your selection, and the motive which 
has induced you to accept these honorable positions, is a sure 
guaranty that the young men placed under your instruction 
will be reared to become men of thought, and men of action; 
iiiat you will instil into their minds, both by precept and 
practice, a proper sense of the dignity and respectability of 
labor; that you will teach them that the employment which 
subjects them to the least temptation to depart from strict 
rectitude of conduct, is an honorable employment; that it 
will bring them comfort, and competence, and the smiles of 
an approving conscience; that they will here learn that habits 
of industry will promote purity of morals, and that purity of 
morals and purity of life is the only guaranty to usefulness 
and happiness. 

Thus, with the liveliest anticipations, and highest hopes of 
success, we welcome the Free Agricultural College among 
the institutions of learning of the State of Michigan, and 
bid it God speed. Long may it flourish, an honor to its 
founders, and an honor to the State. 



The audience were greatly indebted to Mr. Joseph Mills, 
for the prcs3nce of a voluntary Choir from Lansing, who 
eung Mi's. Osgood's " Song of Labor," set to appropriate 
music hy Mr. H. Ingeksoll, a portion of Whtttxer's " Seed 
Time and Hams L ," and the following original ode, by I. M. 
Oravath, of Landjg: 



51 
ODE. 

I. M. CRAVATII. 

Clark! hark! hark! 

Tiller of the earth ! 

Thy day of triumph's come! 
Science now owns thy worth, 
And builds with thee her home. 
Lo ! at the gate of her temple she stands, 

Thy sons she bids enter its walls and behold 
Her search out the secrets of earth, till its sands, 
Dissolved by her touch, are transformed into gokt 

Hail to thee ! hail ! child of toil ! 

Shall Science forsake thee? No, never 1 
We pledge thee her heart and her hand, 

And this, her fair Temple, forever ! 

Hark! hark! hark! 

From the distant field 

Is heard the plowman's song! 
The soil now its wealth shall yield — 
From his efforts hidden long. 
Labor shall here learn how potent the charms 

For her are wrought out in this classical shade. 
And learning, well pleased with this Model of Farme, 
Shall take for her emblems the plow and the spade! 
Hail to thee! hail! child of toil! 

Shall Science forsake thee? No, never! 
We pledge thee her heart and her hand, 
And this, her fair Temple, forever ? 

Tbe parting benediction was pronounced by the Rev. Mi. 
Moore. 



GENERAL INFORMATION 



Since the Institution was opened, inquiries of the Faculty 
have been very numerous. It is proposed to embody such 
general information as seems to be demanded, in reply: 

ADMISSION. 

The terms prescribed to the first class of Students received, 
were that they should pass a good examination in the branches 
embraced in a Common School Education, viz.: Arithmetic, 
Geography, Grammar, Reading, Spelling, and Penmanship. 

Numerous applications for admission have been made from 
other States. By reference to the law of organization, it will 
be perceived that the privileges of the Institution are not 
extended to citizens of other States. 

The accommodations at present famished by the State are 
limited, being for about eighty Students only. 

TERM TIME AND COURSE OF STUDIES. 

The Summer Term commences on the first Wednesday in 
April, and terminates on the last Wednesday in October. 

The Winter Term commences on the first Wednesday of 
December, and terminates on the last Wednesday ot Feb- 
ruary. 

At an early day it will be determined what will constitute 
the Full Course of Studies, which wili <■• tie the Student to 
a Diploma. It will probably embraci >ui years, and the 



Examinations will be thorough in the Branches of Educa- 
tion named m the law, as well as other subsidiary branches. 
An ample Chemical Laboratory has been purchased by 

the Professor of Chemistry, inferior to few in the country, 
and instruction in that Science will be thorough and prac- 
tical 

Ample instruction will be given in the Natural Sciences. 

The Course of Mathematics will be comprehensive. 

The application of Science to the business and arts of life, 
will be practically illustrated in the field and the Lecture 
Room, especially where it bears upon Agriculture. 

Instruction in Ancient and Modern Languages is not in- 
cluded as an object of the Institution. 

A thorough English education is deemed indispensable, 
including Rhetoric, History, Moral and Intellectual Philoso- 
phy, Political Economy, the elements of Constitutional Law, 
&c, &c 

A nucleus of a Library already exists in voluntary contri- 
butions of a few hundred volumes. It is designed to connect 
a Reading Room with the Library, 

EXPENSES AND LA.BOE.. 

The Tuition is free. 

The Students labor, at present, three hours per day. The 
maximum rate of wages allowed is ten cents, and the mini- 
mum five cents per hour, according to age, capacity and 
fidelity. 

Board will be charged at cost, not exceeding, however, 
Two Dollars and Fifty Cents per week. It is a subject of 
regret, that the exorbitant ruling prices of all articles of 
consumption will make the board high during the first term 
of the Institution. 

The wages allowed each Student will be fixed, and the 
cost of board computed, on the third Wednesday of June of 
the current year for the Summer Term, and thereafter on the 
third Wednesday of July for the Summer Term, and the 



67 

third Wednesday of January for the Winter Term. The 
balance will be struck at those times with each Student, 
which must be paid by the Student, his parent or guardian, 
within two weeks from those dates respectively, when the 
balance is against him, or he will forfeit further privileges 
in the Institution. In case the Institution is indebted to the 
Student, the balance will be settled in the same manner. 

RULES AND REGULATIONS. 

There will be Chapel exercises every morning, and Reli- 
gious Services every Sunday, at the Institution, the Clergy- 
men of Lansing officiating in rotation. 

Students will not be allowed to absent themselves from the 
vicinity, unless by permission. 

Spirituous liquors will not be allowed upon the premises. 
The use of tobacco will be discouraged. 

Exact conformity to the hours of study and labor will be 
required. 

The Steward and his family, and one of the Professors, 
reside in the Boarding House, and the rules of decorum and 
propriety observed in private families will be enforced. 

TD INVENTORS, SCIENTIFIC MEN, PUBLISHERS, ETC 

It is proposed to collect a Museum of Models of Agkicul- 
tural Implements, and kindred Inventions in the Mechanic 
Arts. Inventors are therefore, urgently requested to forward 
to the Institution, models or samples of their Inventions. It 
is believed that this would prove an effective method of pro- 
moting the use of valuable implements. 

Antique Specimens of implements, if forwarded, will be 
preserved as curious illustrations of progress in this depart 
ment of invention. 

It is proposed t . . fbi a, as soon as possible, Cabinets of 
Geological, Mineralogical, Botanical, Zoological, Entomolog- 
ical and Ormitholi ad Men of Science are 
requested to promote the object. 
8 



Agricultural and Statistical Periodicals, furnished by the 
Publishers, will be bound, and preserved in volumes in the 
Library. 

State Boards oi Agriculture, and Agricultural Societies, 
are requested to furnish their printed Transactions to the 
Library. 

Publishers of works on Agriculture are requested to fur- 
nish copies to the Library. 



REMARKS. 



At the opening of the Institution, a System of Labor, and 
a System of Instruction must be adopted, and they must be 
harmonized with each other. The Faculty will be embar- 
rassed, at present, by the fact that the Professors, except one, 
are compelled to reside at Lansing, whereas the well being of 
the Institution requires their constant presence. In the ab- 
sence of residences near the spot, the Board of Education 
have resolved to build four cheap Farm Cottages on the 
estate, which will be occupied by the Faculty on such terms 
as shall be prescribed by that Board. 

The Farm being almost entirely in a state of nature, a 
very large amount of the labor of Students must at first be 
bestowed where it will yield little immediate profit. Had 
the Institution possessed a large tract of arable land, at the 
commencement, the earlier results would be far more profit- 
able than they can now prove. 



£. J*n, 185 ' 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DDnE7HH775E 



